Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis had a lot of question marks swirling around him when he was hired. He was taking over a team that was struggling mightily, and he was hired away from a Bantam hockey team.
A lot of jokes were made about the fact his only coaching experience was at the minor hockey level, but he quickly erased any doubts. The team didn’t make a Hollywood-esque run to the Stanley Cup or even the postseason, but they actually showed some life late last season which was much more than we could have said about their first half.
St. Louis was particularly credited for the revival of Cole Caufield who has been among the league’s best goal scorers since his current head coach arrived. Similarly, Nick Suzuki took his game up a notch and young Kirby Dach looks like a new player under the guidance of St. Louis.
Not many are questioning the new coaches methods these days, but there is one bone of contention fans are not thrilled with. And it involves one of the team’s top young players as well.
Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, has been stapled to the fourth line on a nightly basis. That made sense to start the season, with so many veteran forwards on the roster and battling for their own spot in the lineup.
However, when Mike Hoffman was injured, and added to the injury list with Jonathan Drouin, it opened up a roster spot on left wing. Slafkovsky was given a promotion to play with Christian Dvorak and Brendan Gallagher.
Slafkovsky was okay in the game, though it was a 7-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. The team was down 2-0 before most fans found their seats and 3-0 within just a few minutes of the drop of the puck.
It was a weird game to say the least, and it would be the only one that Slafkovsky played on the second line. Tonight, he is back on the fourth line with Jake Evans and Michael Pezzetta while Joel Armia moves to his off wing to play left wing on the third line.
Evans has zero goals and one point this season and Pezzetta has not scored a point yet. Putting a first overall pick with two players who seem incapable of providing offence is not the best spot to succeed.
St. Louis has helped dig this team out of the depths in a hurry, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense that he is burying Slafkovsky so far down the lineup. Hopefully the 18 year old can somehow find a way to shine from there and get himself another promotion in the near future.
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